December 1999

The Mummy: Collector's Edition
Reviewed by Doug Blackburn
DVD Format

Overall Enjoyment:
Picture Quality:
Sound Quality:
Packaged Extras:

Starring Brendan Frazer, John Hannah, Jonathan Hyde, Kevin J. O'Connor, Arnold Vosloo, Rachel Weisz

Directed by Stephen Sommers

Theatrical Release: 1999
DVD Release: 1999
Dolby Digital 5.1
Widescreen (Anamorphic)

The premise of The Mummy will be familiar to anyone who has seen the original Karloff Klassic. The curse of the mummy is activated when well-meaning archaeologists open the wrong tomb. Our (anti) hero animates himself (what little is left of him after thousands of years of decay), in order to restore himself and his soul mate to power, glory and passion. Like the original, the movie takes place in an era of biplanes and sport archaeology. The film successfully captures the time period and seems to accurately recreate the ancient ruins of Egypt as they looked in the 1920s and 1930s.

The heroes are faced with a secret security force which has remained loyal to the last Pharaoh. This secret force has so far been successful at keeping thieves and interlopers out of the cursed tomb of the mummy. However, the force has obviously never met anyone with the dumb luck and humor of Brendan Fraser. In spite of himself, feckless Brendan manages to get past the Pharaoh’s force. However, it doesn’t take long for the meddling librarian (Rachel Weisz) to profess the words that reboot the two-millennia old computer graphics mummy.

This mummy is capable of feats of mayhem that make the original mummy seem like a 90-pound weakling. Considerable energy is put into the effects, yet some still look less than state of the art. Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) provides the effects, some are incredibly good, while other seem short on budget or perhaps time to refine them. The effects using sand on the ground or blowing in the air are the ones that stick out as "could have been done better." Nevertheless, what ends up on the  screen is "good enough" to tell the story without looking cheesy.

The overall effect of this movie is not unlike the first Indiana Jones movie. The Mummy moves along at a fairly good clip, but it is not quite up to the standards of Indiana Jones, in terms of intensity, acting and dialogue. Yet even with these small shortfalls, The Mummy is still a movie that delivers a pretty good time.

Video quality is mixed. While the color is excellent, the sharpness is not up to the standards of the best quality DVDs. However, I suspect that this is not a problem with the DVD transfer itself; the appearance suggests that the film was intentionally a bit soft. This makes integration of effects easier and at the same time it gives a "period look" to the film. This was, therefore, a successful artistic choice.

Sound-wise, this is among the best DVD soundtracks that I’ve heard. There is sufficient detail and great use of the surround channels. There is always lots of "stuff" happening in the surround channels. I predict that we will be seeing a lot of this DVD used during demos at CES in January 2000. The LFE channel has some visceral moments. The tremendously powerful slams that appear and stop very quickly are brilliantly and realistically rendered. Some deep powerful pressure waves swept us along while watching the film. Subtle effects are just as important as LFE effects and here they are done with such restraint and accuracy that they are completely believable and creepy.

This is a "Collector’s Edition," so as one would expect it comes with a lot of added features. You will not be disappointed by this DVD! Here is a run-down of the special features you can access from your DVD player:  

• There is a "Building a Better Mummy" feature which includes lots of behind the scenes information. You get to see quite a few of the people behind Industrial Light and Magic (ILM). In my opinion, this is one of the best documentaries of its type. It focuses on the computer graphics and on ILM’s role in the film.
• A "Feature Commentary" is included that gives behind-the-scenes details. It  is narrated by the director, Stephen Sommers and editor Bob Ducsay. The two have known each other for more than ten years and have made a number of films together. Their interplay is more interesting than many commentary tracks. It is less droll, and a lot funnier and looser.
• The segment on "Visual & Special Effects Formation" is a menu driven exploration of how five different effects scenes were built, step by step. You can see the effects progress from concepts to an incorporation of all the elements necessary to build each of the documented scenes. This feature is also one of the best of its kind.
• The "Cast & Filmmakers" section is a pretty typical text and graphics (one-frame-at-a-time) feature. Nothing too ambitious here. It is comparable to similar features that you’ve likely seen on other DVDs.
• The section on "Deleted Scenes" is unusually short. They must have known exactly what to shoot and what not to shoot. There is only about four or five minutes worth of deleted scenes. A few were quite interesting to see, the others were inconsequential.
• Another text and graphics menu driven feature is "Egyptology 101." This is a nice bit of background for those who may be interested in learning a little about ancient Egypt, but it is nothing outrageous.
• Other features include, a Universal Showcase of coming attractions, Production Notes, and two different trailers for The Mummy

If you have a DVD-ROM, there are even more features you can access. Try The Mummy game, a very tiny shockwave game that is about as tricky as hand-held computer games from the 1980s. It also includes screen savers, desktop wallpaper, e-mail post cards and a set of desktop icons. The DVD-ROM extras also include another "Behind the Scenes" segment of text and graphics, and another "Filmmakers, Cast, and Crew" section (both these segments rehash some of the info from the DVD player features). And finally, there is a segment called "The Story," which is a short text and graphics synopsis of the film.

You have to admit, that even with some duplication in the DVD player and DVD-ROM materials, this is still a full package compared to many DVDs. The Mummy is a two-hour enjoyable romp. The movie looks and sounds great. There is so much action that you’ll be able to choose from at least 15 or 20 different scenes to demo for jealous friends or family members. The action is so good that the dialogue is inconsequential and your demos will be fine. This is a nicely packaged fun movie. It isn’t art and it isn’t perfect, but it is entertaining.

Do you want to watch this at home?

• Purchase this movie at MuZicDepot

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